Huang Chung - Yellow Bell (1984)

Guitarists Jeremy Ryder and Nick Feldman first met when Ryder answered Feldman's advertisement for musicians in the classifieds section of the weekly British music magazine Melody Maker in 1977. They were joined by Bud Merrick on bass and Paul Hammond (ex-Atomic Rooster) on drums, forming the Intellektuals, but in less than a year they'd broken up, and Ryder and Feldman then joined up with drummer Darren Costin, bassist Leigh Gorman, keyboardist Simon Campbell and vocalist Glenn Gregory, to form 57 Men. This band lasted for about eighteen months before splitting, with Gorman going on to play bass in Adam And The Ants and Bow Wow Wow, while Gregory later became the lead vocalist for Heaven 17. Ryder, Feldman and Costin stayed together and renamed themselves Huang Chung, taken from the first note of the Chinese classical music scale, and which translates as "yellow bell" in English. At the beginning of Huang Chung's career, all the members performed under pseudonyms, with Ryder being "Jack Hues" (a play on Emile Zola's 1898 open letter J'Accuse...!), Nick Feldman was "Nick DeSpig", and Darren Costin was "Darren Darwin", and later, just "Darwin". The band signed to the 101 Records label, and their first recording was 'Baby I'm Hu-man', which appeared on a 101 Records compilation album in 1980, with three live tracks subsequently appearing on another 101 Records compilation in 1981. 

Later in 1980 the independent record company Rewind Records signed the band for a two-single deal, and their debut single for the label was 'Isn't It About Time We Were on TV?', followed by 'Stand Still' later that year. Neither single charted, but the group had begun to attract the attention of Arista Records, who signed them on a two-album deal in early 1981. Around the same time, the group expanded to a quartet, with the addition of saxophonist Dave Burnand, and in keeping with the all-pseudonymous nature of the band, Burnand was known as "Hogg Robinson" for the first Arista single, and later, simply as "Hogg". Under the direction of producer Rhett Davies, Huang Chung issued two singles on Arista in 1981, neither of which charted, followed by a Roger Bechirian-produced third single in 1982 which suffered the same fate. The band's self-titled debut studio album was issued in 1982, and it included the three non-charting Arista A-sides, one of the Arista B-sides, and six other new tracks. Like the associated singles, the 'Huang Chung' album failed to chart. In late 1982 the band returned to the studio to start work on their second studio album for Arista Records, and a new single, 'Dance Hall Days', was produced by Tim Friese-Greene and appeared as both a 7" and 12" single in October, but it too failed to trouble the charts. 

After the failure of 'Dance Hall Days', the group's manager, David Massey, convinced Arista to close their contract with Huang Chung, and instead placed the band with American label Geffen Records, making the group the second UK-based act to be signed to Geffen worldwide after Asia, although Burnand left the group around this time, citing "musical differences". At this juncture, the band changed the spelling of their name to Wang Chung, at Geffen's suggestion, to make the pronunciation easier for English speakers, and Feldman and Costin opted to be billed under their real full names, with only Jack Hues keeping his pseudonym. The band spent most of 1983 recording their second studio album, 'Points On The Curve', which was released in July 1983, and a re-recorded version of 'Dance Hall Days' finally gave them the hit that they needed, reaching No. 16 in the US and No. 21 in the UK. The popularity of the song gave Wang Chung the ability to spend two months touring the United States on their own, and then later with the Romantics and Berlin, and more hit singles and albums followed on from this success. This post covers their early years as Huang Chung, and collects all the non-album tracks that the band recorded between 1980 and 1984, including some radio and TV appearances where they performed exclusive songs for broadcast. 

Track listing

01 Isn't It About Time We Were On TV? (single 1980)
02 Drive Me Crazy (b-side of 'Isn't It About Time We Were On TV?')
03 Stand Still (single 1980)
04 I Don't Wanna Be Like You (B-side of 'Stand Still')
05 Journey Without Maps (b-side of 'Hold Back The Tears' 1981)
06 Baby I'm Hu-man (From 'Live At The '101': Bandits At 10 O'clock' 1980)
07 I Don't Believe A Word (From 'Live At The '101': Live Letters Warts 'N' All' 1981)
08 You've Taken Everything (From 'Live At The '101': Live Letters Warts 'N' All' 1981)
09 There Is A Nation (b-side of 'Dance Hall Days' 1983)
10 Separate Lives (from 'BBC In Concert' 1981)
11 Down Here Alone (from 'BBC In Concert' 1981)
12 Wrong (from the TV program 'Night Network' 1981)
13 The Ornamental Elephant (b-side Of 'Don't Let Go' 1984)

Thanks to geofmcm for providing the inspiration and music for this post.